


until the stars are all alight

by heartofstanding



Category: 14th Century CE RPF
Genre: Cute Kids, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, Mother-Son Relationship, Stars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:01:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21681895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartofstanding/pseuds/heartofstanding
Summary: Mary shows her eldest son the stars.
Relationships: Mary de Bohun & Henry V of England
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	until the stars are all alight

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a relentless bit of fluff. Mary's story about the stars is heavily inspired by the creation of the stars in J. R. R. Tolkien's _The Silmarillion_ because I love that story. 
> 
> I see this as taking place a couple of months after [and all this light](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20686430) but it works as a standalone.

**August 1389**

The candles cast the room in a soft glow, turn the gold of Mary’s crucifix rosy and deepen the shadows. She’s almost finished her prayers when the door creaks open. Unthinkingly, she pauses and almost turns before bending her head lower and finishing. She promises God and herself that she will say an extra prayer tomorrow morning as penance for her distraction, and then crosses herself and rises. As soon as she sees little Harry, standing by the door and ashamed at interrupting her at her prayers, her annoyance vanishes. She holds her arms out and he comes running over.

She hugs him tight, buries her nose in his dark hair. He smells of the green herbs that scented his bath, his little body warm and relaxed. Unlike Thomas, who starts struggling if she holds him too long, Harry is content to stay in her arms for as long as possible. But she pulls back, cups his chubby cheek.

‘What are you doing here, love?’

‘Dark,’ he says.

‘I know, but you can’t come to me every time it’s dark,’ she says. She laughs at the disapproving look on his face and kisses him. ‘Did you tell Joanne you were coming to see me?’

He shakes his head, looking surprisingly cheeky. Exasperation and adoration war inside of her. It’s really not good that he sneaks away from his nurse but he only ever does it to come looking for her.

‘She was sleeping, Mama,’ Harry says.

‘Oh sweet-thing, if she wakes up and finds you gone, she’ll fret.’

Mary picks him up and holds him on her hip, kissing his little face. She makes a subtle gesture for one of her women to go and keep watch on the nursery, to inform Joanne of where her charge is if she wakes and finds him gone.

‘The dark isn’t something to be afraid of, love,’ Mary says gently, stroking his face. ‘It has a beauty all of its own. Think about how cosy it is, lying in your bed with Thomas, cuddled up together. How warm and safe you are beneath the blankets.’

He frowns at her dubiously. She presses another kiss to his cheek.

‘Alright,’ she says. ‘I’ll show you.’

*

She tells her ladies to bring cushions and blankets and takes Harry up onto the battlements. It’s a warm night, though summer is beginning to bow to winter, and soon Harry will be three years old, but the wind tugs at her gown and she pauses to put on her mantle and settle Harry snuggly underneath. He’s shivering, his eyes wide and hair ruffled by the breeze. She doesn’t think he’s frightened or cold, just excited. She’s never taken him outside at night before.

She chooses a place where the wind isn’t so strong and settles herself and Harry down on the cushions, tucking a blanket over their legs. Harry’s head nestles against her soft belly.

‘Once,’ she says. ‘A very long time ago, when the world was young, the night seemed fearsome. It was so dark and people said that the Devil stalked during those hours. People were very frightened and they began to feel, during those long hours of the night, that there was nothing but the Devil.’

She cups his cheek.

‘And then God the Father hung the stars in the night sky,’ she says. ‘So they knew, even in the darkest moments, they were not abandoned and the Devil did not reign supreme.’

It is a story one of the nuns who taught her told her once, when she was a child herself frightened of the night. She is not sure a bishop would approve of it, but it comforted her and it seems to comfort Harry now. He stares up at the night sky, looking at the glittering stars.

She finds the brightest star, points it out to him. ‘That is the star of Our Lady,’ she says gently, and he squints at it. ‘The morning star. You can always find her because she shines the brightest.’

But looking at him, warm head nestled against her belly, his eyes trained upwards, she thinks she can see the stars in his dark eyes.


End file.
